Background

In partnership with Mercy Corps-Kenya, we are currently in collaboration with National Steering Committee on Peace Building, Nation Cohesion and Integration Commission, Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission, Office of Registrar of Political Parties, National Police Service, County Security and Intelligence Committee in implementing a 12months election violence prevention and mitigation project in Counties of: Kisumu, Uasin Gishu and Nakuru.

Through this project we seek to promote peaceful election in Kenya by strengthening stakeholders’ capacity to prevent and mitigate election violence and contribute to a peaceful political transition around the August 2022 election. The project commenced on October 2021-September 2022.

The project’s objective is to:

• Strengthen the technical capacity of community-level conflict resolution mechanism.
• Strengthen the technical and response capability of national and county institutions responsible for peace and security.
• Facilitate engagement between government institutions, non-state actors and communities to enhance capacities for Early Warning Early Response and peace building.

 Activities

Here are some of the activities which have been undertaken:

1. Peace Champions Meeting on Strengthening EWER

 Together with Mercy Corps-Kenya we conducted a peace champions meeting on strengthening Early Warning Early Response during the electioneering period.

 The meeting held at our office in Kisumu involved peace champion leaders drawn from Kisumu Sub-Counties and bordering counties of: Nandi-Kisumu and Kericho-Kisumu.

2. Stakeholder Engagement Forum in Kisumu.

 Champions of Peace together with Mercy Corps-Kenya held a consultative forum on Umoja Kwa Amani project at Royal City Hotel in Kisumu County.

 The project is geared towards promoting peaceful elections in Kenya by strengthening stakeholders' capacity to prevent and mitigate election violence and contribute to a peaceful political transition in the forthcoming 2022 elections.

 The stakeholders identified the existing gaps within the society that can be exploited by political class to trigger electoral violence. The stakeholders suggested local solution for violence prevention and mitigation: citizen sensitization on importance of peace, targeted youth empowerment/ self- employment, discerning of social media information amongst others.

 The forum was attended by the County Peace Committee members from all the sub-counties in Kisumu, representative from the office of the County Commissioner (ACC), representatives from the National and County Government.

3. Stakeholders Engagement Forum in Uasin Gishu.

Together with Mercy Corps we organized a stakeholder engagement forum for the Uasin Gishu County, County Peace forum (CPF), at Cicada .

The stakeholders deliberated on;

1. The state of County Peace forums preparedness, plans and gaps.-Focus was on the currently local strategies for peace building and conflict management within the County, the police are very vibrant in reaching out to the community members (youth) through sports for peace tournaments in order to bridge the gap and enhance information sharing.

2. Level of coordination with other stake holders and capacity gaps- there are various peace actors (groups and organizations) working on peace programs but their work is uncoordinated.

The meeting was attended by the County Commissioner and the County secretary.